'We're Going To Make Sure Nasa Langley Stays Here'

HAMPTON — Just last month, Hampton and Newport News City Council members rolled up their sleeves, ready to fight to restore funding for projects at NASA Langley Research Center.

Both city councils unanimously approved resolutions asking Virginia's congressional delegation to return money for aviation research projects, such as ones making up 75 percent of NASA Langley's efforts.

The battle now is bigger than first thought: A House Appropriations subcommittee this week proposed cutting NASA's budget by an additional 10 percent. That could mean the National Aeronautics and Space Administration would close a few of its research centers, including NASA Langley.

Officials in both cities said Tuesday they aren't about to back down. They say they're going to ask Virginia's Capitol Hill representatives for advice on fighting any cuts. They'll ask residents and businesses to get involved. And they'll start looking at ways the area can absorb any possible job losses, such as encouraging more high-tech businesses to locate here.

"Obviously, it's a great concern to the city, the community and the whole Peninsula," Hampton Mayor Joseph Spencer II said of the possible consequences at NASA Langley. "We don't want to be alarmists, but we do want to make sure we're pragmatists.

"We're going to take appropriate action to make sure NASA Langley stays here."

NASA Langley already was set to lose about 20 percent of its funding when NASA diverted about $100 million to the international space station from aviation research.

The sprawling research center on North Armistead Avenue was the nation's first civil aviation lab and cradle for the manned space program. It has 40 wind tunnels testing everything from race cars to spacecraft.

The possibility of cuts or even the closing of NASA Langley is "scary" and no longer can be ignored, said former Hampton Mayor James Eason. There have been talks of budget cuts before but never to this magnitude, he said.

"It's more serious," said Eason, who now is president of the Hampton Roads Partnership, a collection of government, business, education and military leaders focusing on strategic issues facing the area. "It certainly got my attention. No one guessed it would get this bad."

Stopping cuts affecting NASA Langley will be a political fight. Unfortunately, Eason said, there are no southeast Virginia congressmen on key committees, which do include representatives from California and Ohio where other NASA research centers are located.

"The impression I've received is that there's some people adamant about making this stick," Eason said. "NASA Langley ranks near the very top of NASA's list of productive facilities, but politically it's at the bottom. The only way to reverse this is to have a tremendous outpouring from the region urging this committee and Congress to change its mind. "The community has to come forward and make its feelings well-known."

Hampton City Councilman Tom Gear's father, the late Thomas J. Gear, worked at NASA Langley for almost 30 years. The younger Gear said closing the research center would be "frightening" and "a tragedy." He's hoping Virginia's congressmen can garner enough support to halt cuts or even NASA Langley's closing.

"I would hope Bobby Scott and Herb Bateman Sr. would show us what path we need to follow to fight this thing," Gear said, referring to the area's two representatives.

Aviation research of the sort done at Langley affects millions of people. Gear wants to bring more of that work to the Hampton research center. "There are a lot more things that can be done here," he said.

More than providing employment, Newport News City Councilman Herbert Bateman Jr. said NASA Langley has "a vital mission" in aeronautical and technological fields. Bateman is the son of 1st District Rep. Herbert Bateman Sr.

The Peninsula has done a good job creating jobs to absorb cutbacks at Newport News Shipbuilding. The younger Bateman said efforts must continue to handle any losses from NASA Langley.

If cuts must be made at NASA Langley, Bateman said he will push to ensure they are made gradually.

Hampton council member Linda McNeeley said the entire region needs to be concerned about NASA Langley's possible closing. It now must seek ways to assist NASA Langley and create an action plan to retain the area's high-tech focus.

"We've got some work to do and it needs to be done as a region," McNeeley said. "We need to approach localities, get constituencies out and use the same kind of game plan as when Fort Monroe was slated for closing.

"We have to go at it from as many angles as possible."

- Fred Tannenbaum can be reached at 247-4787 or by e-mail at ftannenbaum@dailypress.com